Moghalu wants FG to raise N20 trillion bond for railways, others
AFORMER Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN), Professor Kingsley Moghalu, has called on the federal government to quickly raise a N20 trillion bond for the rebirth of three strategic sectors in three years.
Speaking on the topic, ' An Economy in Distress: Which Way Forward at the 16th edition of the leadership yearly conference and awards in Abuja, yesterday, Moghalu said the leadership of the country needs to start thinking strategically instead of the present kneejerk reactions that only create new and further opportunities for corruption.
These moves, he said, would form major steps in the journey to pull the country out of the current economic crisis.
He said the project is to be predicated on massive investment in the development of railway lines ( linking all state capitals), housing ( mortgageready and qualitative to incrementally reduce housing deficits), and agriculture ( covering the value chain), to be delivered in the first phase over three years, beginning in 2024.
According to him, "This project, which we shall for our discussion call project "3- in- 3", should target to create five million new direct and indirect jobs. It will create two new thriving economic sectors. The purpose is to stimulate productivity in agriculture and housing, two sectors that do not depend on foreign exchange, and depend on locally available resources across the 36 states. That resource is land."
Moghalu said the three project sectors are all outside of exclusive federal control, constitutionally. "This will allow flexible and diversified intervention by subnational governments and the private sector under an overarching federal coordination," he said, adding that state and local governments as anchor implementers should leverage their control of land assets as debt capital to create value chains under the project.
He said the current hardship in the country is a creation of many years and a result of the many wrong choices the country has made adding that the hardship will take at least three to five years to end, provided the government is ready to have the courage to fix the fundamentals.